


Phantom Striker

by theredhoodie



Category: Leverage, Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Pacific Rim, F/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-13
Updated: 2014-11-13
Packaged: 2018-02-25 07:16:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2613050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theredhoodie/pseuds/theredhoodie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They said it was impossible, that three people couldn’t share a Jaeger. There was <i>no way</i> that <i>three</i> people’s minds could sync perfectly enough to work one of the machines. Especially if they weren’t related. But that’s what they did: they bent the rules.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Phantom Striker

**Author's Note:**

> A random idea built up on a tumblr post and the Leverage episode "The Rundown Job". 
> 
> Lightly edited by me.

"We saw the news feeds, we want to help," the woman said. She was thin and tall, blonde hair pulled back tightly. She had bags under her eyes, and didn't bother hiding it. She hadn't sat down since arriving in the room. "Helping people is what we do."

There was no way to hide the sudden appearance of these monsters, these  _Kaiju_. The Mark-2s were already in the process of being sketched out while the Mark-1s, the first wave of Jaegers, were hastily being put together.

Stacker Pentecost, stepping in to take control of the program even as his own Jaeger was still being built, stood in front of the three candidates that had somehow gotten into his office. "I'm sorry, but this isn't a first come, first serve basis. You have to go through standard procedure and—"

"We know," the tallest of the three stepped forward. "I've already reviewed the protocols for the first pilots, including yourself, and the newest standards. I've even reviewed the plans for the Mark-2s, they're a good improvement if I say so myself—"

"Hardison," the woman said softly.

Stacker raised his eyebrows at the young black man—who, in fact, wasn't all that much younger than Stacker himself. "How did you get that information? That's highly classified."

The woman took a deep breath and a step forward. "Sir, I'll be straight with you. We have shady pasts, we haven't always been the good guys, but we're also not your typical citizens. We've spent years helping those who couldn't help themselves, and this is…big, this is major. We can't sit back and watch these Kaiju attack the world and not at least try to get involved in stopping them."

Stacker blinked once, twice, and then pinched the bridge of his nose. "Who exactly are you people?" He couldn't help but be swayed by their persistence, especially joining into the program at an older age than most of the people stepping up to the plate.

"Sir!" Victoria Grange, a lieutenant and Stacker's current right hand, burst through the office door. "There's been a—" She stopped when she saw the three people standing there. "—breach of security. But I see you already know this."

Stacker dropped his hand to his side and looked at Victoria; petite with chocolate brown hair and a thick French accent. "I was just asking them who they were."

"We want to help," the blonde woman insisted, stepping forward again. "And we felt the need to meet with you personally. We know that we wouldn't be allowed into the program if you did a background check. But we are volunteering our lives, Mr. Pentecost."

Victoria hovered in the background, unsure if she should stay or go. Stacker looked over the three people in front of him; all of them were very different, he could tell just by looking at them. "I would have appreciated a more formal meeting."

"I'm sorry, we wanted to see you as soon as possible," the blonde woman said, clasping her hands in front of her. "We're willing to do whatever it takes."

Stacker was a very by-the-book man. He had the adrenaline rush from being one of the first to test Jaeger tech, but he was still very much fueled by law and order. However, the unwavering sincerity of the faces in front of him stirred something like hope within him.

"Give your names to Victoria, we  _will_  run a background check. You can stay in our barracks and will be kept under close watch until I make a decision," Stacker said after an elongated pause.

 

 

 

 

"This is entirely unconventional," Victoria told Stacker, standing on the other side of his desk as he looked over the hastily pulled up backgrounds of the three confederates. And she was right. All of them had criminal backgrounds of the grandest kinds. They were the  _best_  in their fields, and yet such criminal activity lessoned in the past several years and was instead replaced with connections to a Robin Hood type of business called Leverage, Inc.; stealing from the rich, giving to the poor.

"Yes. But they're eager and willing, and they could be useful," Stacker said, flipping through the folders for the umpteenth time in the last twenty minutes. "This...Alec Hardison…with his skills, he could join the J-Tech division."

"Excuse me for speaking out of turn, sir, but these are...thieves, criminals. Should we entrust them with such things? This is the fate of the world we're putting in their hands," Victoria pointed out.

Stacker closed the folders and stood, pressing his fingers against the desk. "The world is changing right before our eyes, Lieutenant. The world is coming together against a common enemy for the first time in  _history_. The world will have to learn to adapt."

She pushed her shoulders back and nodded. "Yes, sir. Shall I bring them here?"

He nodded in return and dismissed her. Once he was alone, he combed through the files once again. All three of their lives were unconventional; the one with the alias Parker had a trail of misfortunate deaths in her wake, along with mountains of stolen wealth; Eliot Spencer also had a trail of deaths behind him, none of them accidental, and Stacker was already imagining putting such a person in a fighting machine, the kind of damage he could do to a Kaiju; and lastly, Alec Hardison, startlingly just a year younger than Stacker himself, managed to hack into the Pan Pacific Defense Corps' computer system without anyone ever knowing.

Individually, they would all be assets to the PPDC.

 

 

 

 

"No way," Parker said, shaking her head. She crossed her arms, once again standing instead of sitting. Sitting was a Nate thing to do, and this was  _not_  a very Nate thing they were doing here at the PPDC. "I'm not going through  _any_  protocols unless you'll give us a chance at trying to pilot a Jaeger together."

Stacker took a deep breath, once again keeping on his feet to match the stances of those opposite him. "We test everyone separately. There are physical and psychological tests that everyone has to go through. We also have different divisions that I think you each could fit into and still help in the way you claim you want to."

Hardison brushed his fingers against Parker's arm lightly to catch her attention. "If it's protocol, we'll do it all," he replied for her. She clenched her jaw and crossed her arms over her chest.

"I can't promise that you'll each pass the tests, and I definitely cannot promise you a Jaeger," Stacker explained, putting his feet down for the final offer. It hovered in the air between them:

Take the chance of being able to join the newly created Jaeger Program, or crawl back to Boston or Portland or Canada and hide away as monsters destroyed the coasts.

Parker glanced up at Hardison, who moved his eyebrows ever so slightly. On her other side, Eliot stepped forward, eyes washing over his companions for just a moment before he spoke for the first time to General Pentecost: "We'll do it."

 

 

 

 

"I don't like tight spaces," Hardison reminded them as they walked back to their barracks. "You remember that right? The whole grave situation? That was not cool, I didn't appreciate that. I've seen the schematics of those suits the pilots have to wear—"

"Shut up, Hardison," Eliot grumbled. "If you're gonna be doin' anything here, it'll be with computers. You're not a fighter, I doubt they'll hook you up to a twenty-five story weapon."

Hardison made a face.

"I don't like this," Parker said finally, biting down on her bottom lip. "What if they split us up? We can't be split up. We're a  _team_." She glanced from side to side, ignoring all of the other people walking around them. Most of them were in military green or blue. She wasn't paying attention to ranks, but Eliot was cataloguing them already in his mind.

"If anything, Parker and I will be paired to pilot," Eliot finished.

"Why do you say that?" Parker asked, looking over at him. Just before this trip to the near-Arctic, she had just cut his hair—she really wasn't sure why he let her near his face with scissors, but she'd been feeling adventurous and he was a little drunk—and it curled at the ends somewhere between his jaw and the crook of his neck, blocking half of his profile from her quick glance.

"I'm a fighter, and you're...extremely flexible and know just how to move," Eliot explained. Parker cocked her head to the side. "I've seen you work through a laser maze. It's one of the most complicated things I've ever seen and you move through them like it's a dance."

Parker tilted her head the other way and resisted a large grin, permitting herself a small smile instead. "Thank you. But, I still think they need to try the three of us." She hopped a step and looped her arm around Hardison's shoulders and one around Eliot's, dragging them both closer to her. "We're a team, remember? We've got each other's backs. Besides, I don't have to be able to read people like Sophie to know that Hardison really wants to pilot a giant robot and beat up monsters."

There was a slight hesitation, but Hardison caved quickly to the idea. "A'ight, that'd be pretty fricken sweet, I'll give you that."

 

 

 

 

Eliot's aggression labeled him close to unfit to be paired with another human being unless he could control himself in the Drift. Parker's emotional baggage and frantic thinking labeled her a liability to be caught in the RABBIT, but her physical abilities were so smooth and natural that it was possible she'd be able to Drift with a number of other candidates. Hardison didn't have the best physical test scores, but his mind was an endless mile of filing cabinets of perfect organization.

They each had strengths and weaknesses, and they were there, laid out in front of them on ink and paper. Because of the odd circumstances of them joining the Jaeger Program before the program was officially opened, Stacker took a personal interest in them. Not to mention, even some of the other higher officers and Rangers were unsure of accepting a group of thieves into their midst.

The hardest thing to find was two people with minds that were compatible. There was more to fighting Kaiju than just getting into the suit and moving a robot exoskeleton. There were engineers, the LOCCENT and the rest of the crew that stayed back in the PPDC headquarters—that is, until the first Shatterdome was completed. The Jaeger Program was officially opening in three months, but Eliot, Hardison and Parker had gotten here while they were still putting the final touches on building the Jaeger simulators.

"What is he waiting for?" Eliot asked one day over the lunch table. The cafeteria was big and concrete and cold, filled with the crew and a handful of scientists.

"There's a lot of variables to work through," Hardison said around a mouthful of bread. Oh what he wouldn't give for some orange soda and a donut right now. "Just give it some time, man."

Parker shrugged a slender shoulder and nodded. "Yeah, Eliot, I know patience isn't your strong suit, but this is a big deal. We'll have a leg up on any of the new recruits once this place opens." She finished off the last of her carton of milk and made a face over the table at Eliot.

"Excuse me." It was Victoria Grange. She was dressed sharply in uniform, as usual. The three of them turned to look at her standing at the end of their table. "General Pentecost would like to see the three of you."

"Now?" Hardison asked, gripping tight to the bun in his hand.

"Yes, now," she replied, looking at him oddly before turning on her heel.

Hardison sighed and shoved the rest of the bread into his mouth as he stood. Eliot and Parker joined him and they trailed behind Victoria. The three of them had resorted to simple cloth pants and white t-shirts like the rest of the people here who didn't wear military uniforms. Parker's hair was currently back in a messy bun to keep it out of her face while she was eating, and Eliot's was once again falling into his face. Hardison had no such issues besides finding pants with legs long enough to not float above his ankles.

All of them were edgy, wanting to know if their pushing and overstepping was actually going to pay off or not.

 

 

 

 

"Now, this is entirely unconventional," Stacker said. The four of them were in the same position as usual: the three of them standing—this time they all had their arms clasped behind their backs, side effects of being around so many officers—on one side of the desk and Stacker posed in front of them in navy blue. He said this almost every time he was faced with them. They broke into a military grade facility, hacked PPDC servers—which were supposed to be some of the most secure servers on the planet—and yet they were still here, going through these tests, putting their lives on the line. "But your test scores show exceedingly high levels of skill."

Hardison grinned, which Eliot caught out of the corner of his eye. Eliot rolled his eyes and then straightened his face.

"However, I don't think I can allow any combination of the three of you try out a Drift."

Parker pressed her lips together and swallowed. "Then what's the point of us being here?"

"The point is you came in here wanting to help people. I stuck my neck out on the line accepting you into the program, which, mind you, isn't even officially started yet, and you three are some of the best candidates we could have hoped for to start off our program."

Parker clenched her fingers together behind her back. "Really?"

"Yes. Officially, the Jaeger Program won't begin hiring pilots until July 24th. But, the Kaiju aren't going to stop showing up just because we're still building new machines. We have Mark-1s and we've been searching for Mark-1 pilot recruits. You'd be our first recruits of the Mark-2 generation."

"Which one of us is the most prepared to undertake the pilot training?" Eliot asked. He was always a man of few words and Stacker could appreciate that.

Stacker turned behind him and grabbed some files off the table. He knew what was inside of them anyway, but he flipped through the folders just to fill the silence with the swish of pages, to build tension and force the three to understand the need for patience. "Eliot Spencer…high levels of aggression, but extremely skilled in combat. Not one hundred percent ideal for a pilot, but, with some training in our program…" He flashed his eyes up at Eliot and then to the woman standing next to him. "I hear you like to be called only Parker, so  _Parker_ , erratic mind, extremely natural physical flow. Just about an ideal candidate for a pilot, if we can find a compatible person." Eyes once again flashed from person to person, from Parker to the last of them. "Alec Hardison. Infamous hacker, brilliant mind, not so great skills on the physical tests, but they can be improved. Some of my men suggest you join our J-Tech division."

Parker pressed her lips together and took a step forward, just as the air was filled with the screams of alarms and flashing lights. They all knew what that meant.

"Kaiju," Parker whispered.

"Excuse me," Stacker said, leaving his office in a rush. He didn't tell them to go back to their barracks or where he wanted them to go, so, naturally, the three of them followed him. He went to the Mission Control room, where almost the entire crew in the PPDC was pooling in. They were crowded around large screens showing news feeds.

 

 

 

 

They had one completed Jaeger, Brawler Yukon, but it was just a prototype. The pilots, however, killed the Kaiju dubbed Karloff, the first of the Kaiju kills by Jaeger. It was April 23rd, 2015.

On April 24th, 2015, Eliot, Parker and Hardison began to undergo the same training as the first pilots had, and still were, going through. The physical training was separate for each of them. They learned offensive and defensive moves after a set of basics. Eliot needed less, but he needed to be primed for the way that Jaegers could move. Hardison needed help all around, since he only knew the very basics of what Eliot had been teaching him the past few years. Parker disliked the conformity of the training, but she forced herself to focus.

This was all to help others, to help the world. They had to stand together, to push through their dislikes and fears. They were able to help, so it was only right that they do all they could. It's what Nate taught them when he brought them all together.

 

 

 

 

"I don't like this," Parker said.

Hardison arched an eyebrow. "You've been saying that  _a lot_  since we got here, babe."

Parker sighed and glanced over at him. She tied off the end of her hair in its long braid and flicked aside side bangs from her eyes. "I just don't want to be away from you," she said softly, tying the waist of her cotton pants.

"Hey, hey…" Hardison stood in front of her and took her face in his hands, forcing her to look up at him. "It'll be fine, boo. Do you trust me?"

She half frowned, but nodded, lifting her hands for just a moment to brush her fingertips against his wrists. "Yeah."

Eliot banged on the door, breaking the moment. "Hey, let's go!" his gruff voice filtered through the thick door.

Mimutes later, the three of them were walking down the familiar stairway toward the makeshift Kwoon training room. The first Shatterdome, in Hong Kong, would be functional in November, and the one in Anchorage would soon follow. So, for now, they had to stay on Kodak Island in the facilities supplied for them.

Stacker was there on the sidelines, but those with the reins today were the Jeager pilots and pioneers of the Program, Sergio D'Onofrio and Caitlin Lightcap.

"Remember, this isn't a fight, this is just a way to explore compatibility," Caitlin explained, pushing blonde hair behind her ears. "Stacker's told us that the three of you don't want to be separated. I don't know if it's possible for three people to share a neural bridge, but if it  _is_  possible—"

"What Caitlin is trying to say is it would be an extremely important scientific endeavor to see if three people could share a bridge. Even piloting a Jaeger with two people is more difficult than you know," Sergio finished for his partner.

"Exactly," Caitlin said with a smile. "Why don't you and  _you_ , start." She pointed at Eliot and Parker. Hardison leaned on his Bo staff off to the side.

"It's not a fight right?" Parker said, flashing a nervous smile across the room.

"Not a fight, Parker," Eliot replied with a nod.

"Just remember the training," Caitlin said, standing the closest to Parker. "I know you've only had a month of it, but if you three have been together as long as you claim, this should be easy for you."

Parker took a deep breath and nodded once, the staff feeling odd in her hands. She was used to moving freely, with just herself. At most, she used her taser, but that wasn't the same as a five-foot rod. Eliot also was used to using just his body as a weapon, but he had much more experience with weapons than she did.

"This isn't a fight," she whispered to herself, stepping forward.

"This ain't a fight," Eliot said in return, keeping his eyes on hers. He twirled the staff in his hands and took a stance.

Parker closed her eyes, sucked in a breath and let it out slowly, opening her eyes.

 

 

 

 

"You can't ignore this, Stacker," Caitlin said, hours later. She and Sergio were back in Stacker's office along with Jasper Schoenfeld. "I never thought of the possibility of bridging three minds to control a Jaeger, but these three…each pairing of them in the Kwoon was equally the strongest compatibility between two people I've ever seen."

"I have to agree," Sergio nodded. "Just from experience, of course. I'm not scientist."

Jasper sucked in a breath and pressed his hands together, leaning forward. "We know that sharing a Jaeger between two minds evens out the neural load, but we also know that it's still a struggle. If we could figure out how to get it to work with three…"

"It seems impossible," Stacker said, sitting back. "It's hard enough to even get two people who match."

"Which is why this is such an opportunity," Caitlin insisted. "These three are brilliant minds, brilliant people, and they are willing to help. We should take advantage. The world is going to need all of the hope we can spare. And if they can help us, we should accept their offer."

"Could it kill them? If you tried to create a three-way neural bridge?" Stacker asked.

Caitlin shook her head. "No. I'll need a little bit of time to reconfigure some aspects of the tech, but we can give it a shot. The only thing that could happen is that it will fail. There shouldn't be any permanent damage. It's different because it's three of them and not one. If anything, having three should cushion the neural blow. The only thing we should worry about is whether or not they're compatible. We know that if they're not compatible, nothing bad will happen besides a blow to their egos. Especially since the three of them are so close."

The room filled with silence that stretched to tension.

"So this is a yes? Dr. Lightcap, how fast can you make a three-way neural connector?"

"Give me forty-eight hours."

 

 

 

 

"So this is happening," Parker said the next night. She sat cross-legged on her bed. Hardison was on the end of the same bed and Eliot was sitting backward in the desk chair, his chest pressed against the back of the seat and arms propped over the top.

"You sound worried," Eliot pointed out. "Thought this is what you wanted."

She bit down on her bottom lip and pushed some hair behind her ear. "It is. I swear. I just can't believe it's actually happening. They're going to let us do this."

Hardison moved suddenly, joining Parker on the bed, pressing his back against the wall next to her and letting the bottom part of his legs hang off the edge. "I've been looking over the schematics of this mind meld thing. They use something called a Pons. From what I can find, it's the system and part of the suit that connects the brains. Now, when in an actual Jaeger, your entire body is connected. The suits clamp around your suit's vertebra and connects you to the Jaeger. I don't like the idea of being stuffed into a suit like a sardine."

"It doesn't matter, Hardison," Parker said, shaking her head and pulling her legs up against her chest. "If we do end up Drifting, shouldn't your fears be neutralized?" She tilted her head over toward him.

Eliot clenched and unclenched his hands into fists. "Sounds a lot like DARP's Jet-fighter Neural-Interface project."

Both Parker and Hardison turned to look at him, mild surprise on their faces.

"What? I know things," Eliot grumbled.

"No…I-I know. It's just…that's what it  _is_  based off of," Hardison said, waving a hand. "I found it in some of the earliest system designs."

Parker let out a breath. "I wonder if we could ever just  _ask_  to know about these things. Caitlin seems nice enough, I'm sure we could just talk to her…"

"Who are you and what have you done with Parker?" Hardison asked, nudging her with his elbow. "Usually you're all about being sneaky."

"I know," Parker said. "But, I'm trying to be… _better_."

The emphasized word hung in the air between the three of them. Parker kept her eyes on Eliot, their time in that ice cave coming back to her. She waited for his gaze to stop shifting, for his eyes to meet hers and words unspoken to rise up between them.

He did, eventually, and he set his jaw. "There's nothing to be better about, Parker. You're fine the way you are."

Hardison nodded. "We have nothing to worry about, Parker. You've been going to your psych workshops right?" She nodded and gave him a small smile when he squeezed her upper arm gently.

There were currently two Jaeger Psych Analysts on Kodak Island, both of which had been spending time five days a week with each of them, to not only make sure they were capable of even possibly being able to Drift with someone, but to prepare them for what they had to  _do_  once they did Drift with someone.

"I ain't gonna lie to you," Eliot started, "I'm not happy about havin' anyone else in my head. I have secrets."

"We all have secrets," Parker said softly.

"Yeah, I know. But my secrets are heavy, Parker, they're bloody and they're shameful."

Parker nodded, eyes glossy at the prospect of sharing her own close-kept secrets with them. They were her family, she trusted them and they trusted her; as was evident of Eliot's confession. "You heard the psychologist people, you're supposed to keep your mind clear during a Drift. We can do that."

What she meant was that they—her and Eliot, at least—were supreme builders of emotional walls. They were good at hiding themselves.

"We can do this," she repeated, squeezing Hardison's hand and keeping her eyes locked on Eliot's.

 

 

 

 

"This is just a dry run, to see if a neural bridge is possible," Caitlin explained to them. "If this works, we'll have a special Jaeger simulation built for the three of you, as well as…y'know, a Jaeger itself."

Parker's heart hammered a million miles an hour, but it was out of excitement, not nervousness. This is what they came here for, this is why they broke the rules. The team was safe and together—Nate and Sophie were away, tucked away in some remote place in France together, away from any coasts, and she, Eliot and Hardison were here, stepping up to the plate like they always did.

There were three seats set up and they were all asked to sit. They were set in a line, much like the way the pilots were set up within the Jaeger itself. Caitlin and Jasper and a handful of other scientists of all ages scuttled around.

"If this works, we'll have to worry about the neural load distribution within the Jaeger, but for now, this is just to make sure you're compatible. It's highly possible that, despite how much you want it, only two of you will be able to build a successful bridge. I just want you to be prepared for that, okay?" Caitlin explained all that was needed and stood back as three assistants set the Pons devices on the candidates.

"Do you feel like you're in a sci-fi movie yet?" Parker asked as the people floated off to the edges of the room and Caitlin and Jasper joined together behind the main screen to monitor the process.

"I'll tell you later," Hardison said with a wink to hide his nervousness.

"Okay guys, we're going to activate the Pons now, there's going to be a pain on the back of your neck, that's normal," Caitlin explained. And indeed, there was a shock on the back of their necks. Parker stretched out her fingers as far as they would go. Hardison did the opposite, clenching his hands around the ends of the arms of the chair. Eliot focused on his breathing and let his hands rest lightly against the cushioned arms on either side of him.

"Okay good. Now, just relax. We're going to open the neural channels," Jasper spoke this time.

Simultaneously, the three of them felt as if they were slammed back into their bodies, pulled backward by an invisible string tied around their torsos. It was the oddest feeling any of them ever encountered before, especially as  _things_ , memories, flashed by them;  _especially_ , when those memories weren't just their own.

"This is incredible," Caitlin whispered, eyes trained on the screen in front of her. "None of them are resisting."

They didn't get caught on memories, theirs or the others, and suddenly they found themselves in the quiet silence of the Drift. It was strange,  _so_ strange. The three of them were basically sharing a mind, instinct and brains running on the same waves. There were no walls between them, and they each almost felt like they were inhibiting each other's bodies. It felt so  _natural_. Parker's spike of childish excitement burst in both Eliot and Hardison's chests. Hardison's mind attempted to rush off and think about what actually was happening, but the first and most important thing they were taught was to keep their minds as clear of thoughts as possible while sharing a neural bridge. Eliot's controlled and collected mind was an anchor between the three of them, keeping Parker and Hardison's more frantic minds in check.

It didn't last long. It wasn't meant to, not in this setting, not with hastily made equipment that wasn't built for withstanding a three-way Drift for extended periods. Even without the neural handshake connecting their bodies, the three of them shifted their open eyes and attention to the group of scientists behind the screen showing all of their biometric statistics at the same moment.

"Okay guys, we're going to shut off the Pons, you're going to feel a little disoriented, so just stay sitting for a little while," Caitlin said, her voice carrying over to them. Between the three of them, they felt Parker's pleasant thoughts toward the scientist and Ranger, Eliot's flicker of finding her voice aesthetically pleasing, and Hardison's awe that someone as human as he was could develop a device that did something as amazing as this.

And then it was gone. They were slammed back into their bodies and felt a mix of dizziness and bewilderment. Like suggested, the three of them stayed seated and their eyes closed until they rejoined their own selves. Once their worlds settled into their separate bodies, Caitlin and Jasper walked around to face them.

"The connection was a success," Caitlin said, nearly bursting with excitement of her own.

Eliot half smiled-half smirked and Parker nodded her head as she and the others stood. She reached out and grabbed hold of both of Eliot and Hardison's arms. "Like we've been telling you, we're a team."

 

 

 

 

They said it was impossible, that three people couldn't share a Jaeger. There was  _no way_  that  _three_  people's minds could sync perfectly enough to work one of the machines. Especially if they weren't related. But that's what they did: they bent the rules.

It was stunning, really. Caitlin and Jasper were back in the labs, constructing just how to section off the neural loads. Typically, one piloted the left hemisphere and one the right, with the right hemisphere pilot being the  _lead_. With three, that wasn't possible without cutting out the third person unless they were just there as backup in case one of the others blacked out, but that wasn't at all what anyone wanted.

Even Stacker was impressed with the initial test. No one thought it was possible. They had hopes, but this was more than anyone could dream.

 

 

 

 

They had to sit through longer connections within the Drift while in their chairs, stretching from five minutes to an hour as the week stretched onward and Caitlin, Jasper and the crews worked on a three-way simulator.

There had to be many adjustments as to who would control which part of their future Jaeger. So they had to be tested over and over. They soon grew accustomed to the feeling of the Pons and the Drift. With no new Kaiju attacks, everyone was focused on the other Mark-1s and now the Mark-2; the first one would belong to Parker, Hardison and Eliot.

The first day they tried the neural handshake, everyone was on edge. Like the first day of neural bridge tryouts, there was a crowd of people to witness the event.

"You alright?" Eliot asked both Hardison and Parker. Hardison ran his glove over the restrictive Pons suit and cleared his throat.

"It's-is cool, I'll give it that," Hardison replied. "Still not digging the full suit though."

Parker stood in front of him in a matching suit and put her hands on either shoulder. "You're gonna be fine. See? Eliot and I are fine, that'll rub off on you. Just try not to think about it."

Hardison pressed his lips together in a line and nodded once.

"Okay," Caitlin arrived on scene. She pushed her glasses up to the bridge of her nose. "So the deal is, I've done my best to evenly balance the neural load. From what the others and I have witnessed from the neural bridge trials, Alec, you will handle the right hemisphere, Parker, the left and Eliot…will take the weight off both of them as a dark headspace and main source of combat moves. How does that sound?"

"Sounds about as solid as a con," Hardison said, getting a jab in the side by Eliot. "I mean, yeah, sounds good."

"It's just a grasp at straws, guys, mathematics and equations," Caitlin said. "We'll probably need to do a lot of tweaking, but Japser and I have high hopes that this will be a successful first handshake."

There's nothing to fear. They were in good hands. And also in Pons helmets. Hardison protested, but Parker told him to just breath. They were then ushered into the simulation room. It was specially made for the three of them. Parker on the left, Hardison on the right and Eliot a few steps back between the both of them. He would have to completely trust the two of them to handle all of the weapons and biospecs screens.

Getting into their proper places and feeling the synch of the spinal clamp was an odd sensation. They weren't yet connected with a Jaeger, but they may as well have been. Caitlin's coms came through their helmets and the simulation would start as soon as the neural handshake was completed.

"Ready for this?" Parker asked, her voice coming through Hardison and Eliot's helmets.

"I hope so," Hardison replied from her left.

"Okay guys, here we go," Caitlin said. "It'll be a little rockier now that you're in the suits, but just keep your breathing steady and your minds clear."

They nodded simultaneously even though they weren't yet in the bridge. They sucked in breaths and felt the pull of the Drift. That tug from behind and the out-of-body jarring, this time paired with something completely new. The suits added a whole new level, as their entire bodies synced up.

Instincts, thoughts and all motor movements became one. There was the odd sensation of each of them knowing they were going to move their left arm and clench their left fist and they did it simultaneously. If they were in a Jaeger, the machine would move gracefully with them.

_Neural handshake completed._

"Okay, how does it feel?" Caitlin asked them, her voice ringing through their ears.

"Extremely…odd," Hardison was the first to speak. "But slick. It's nice."

"Dammit, Hardison, do not use the word slick when you're in my head," Eliot growled from two steps behind.

"Parker?" Caitlin prodded.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm okay," she said with a slight nod, a blink and a clench of her jaw. "I'm good. You guys good? This is weird right?"

"Focus, Parker," Eliot said.

She let out a deep breath and set her shoulders.

"Remember, keep your minds clear and just flow with the simulation all right? We won't keep you under for more than thirty minutes, so just test your connection. We'll get readings on your mental and physical states and tweak the system for your next run. Got it?" Caitlin rambled off, voice as sturdy as ever.

"Got it," the three of them said at once.

"Okay, starting the simulator now," Jasper came through, before the screen in front of them shifted and it was like they were suddenly in the middle of a city. There was going to be no Kaiju on this simulator. They just had to get accustomed to the set up and stay in the simulator long enough for the scientists to assess their statistics.

They were told that the neural handshake made non-verbal communication possible, along with the fact that it was the quickest way to make slight of hand decisions while in a Jaeger. But it was difficult to get ahold of on your first try.

"Just take it easy," Eliot said, building up his reputation as the anchor, the clear headspace.

"Got it," Parker breathed out. They weren't yet moving a Jaeger so they didn't have the full neural weight, but it still was a strain on their minds, one that had to be built up over multiple uses until their brains got used to it.

They moved their left arms again, bent at the elbow, clenched and unclenched their fists.

"This is by far the coolest thing we have ever done," Hardison said, his excitement seeping through the Drift.

They moved their right arm next, out to the side, bent at the elbow, back down by their side.

"Imagine taking out a giant alien monster like this, huh?" Hardison continued, grinning wide behind his helmet, clenching both fists. The others also clenched their fists along with him.

"I feel like a superhero," Parker added.

"Haven't felt this high since we took down Moreau, ya feel me?"

"Hardison," Parker warned, her eyebrows furrowing slightly. She felt a tug, something not smooth like the rest of the Drift. "Hardison, shut up. Eliot?"

Eliot could feel himself slip. He wasn't supposed to slip, but it happened. One little mention of a nasty former employer and he was slipping. They were told about this; they called it chasing the RABBIT—Random Access Brain Impulse Triggers. They were strong memories that someone, and their copilot—in this case,  _pilots_ —got dragged with them.

"Eliot!" Parker's voice tugged at him, but he was still getting dragged down.

" _Don't ask me that, Parker, because if you ask me, I'm gonna have to tell you_. _"_

_Eliot's voice cracked over the scene and drifted away to Lebanon, 2004. No witnesses, as messy as it was to take everyone out, Moreau didn't leave loose ends. It didn't matter that the second neck that was snapped belonged to a thirteen year old kid, that it was the most painless way they could think of to end a life that young. There were the guards, guns and batons. A bullet grazed their shoulder and bit into the wall behind them._

"Eliot!"

 _Everything was_ they _. They made the decision to break the first guard's nose, slam a boot into his knee and take his baton to knock him out and a kick that ended in a lethal crack. It was them that heard the screams of a woman and saw her protecting her child in the room over. No witnesses. Gun swiped from the first guard, bullets burst through the chest of the three other guards in the room. The woman, the mother, pleaded and begged. They stopped across from her, hesitating just enough for one heart beat to slip through until the gun was lifted and a bullet went through her brain. The child screamed, covered in the blood of her mother._

_They yanked her up to her feet and through the room to the set of double doors. The target was behind, probably with five or six guards. One muscled arm slipped around the kid's shoulders, pressing against her throat as she scrabbled and cried. They narrowed their eyes and shot blindly through the door and walls. "I have your daughter!" the words in Arabic slipped off their tongue in a gruff tone. "I'll let her go if anyone's alive in there." They kicked in the door and kept the daughter in hand._

_There were fewer guards than expected, two, not five. Bloody. Target in sight, hiding behind his desk. He had a gun in a shaking hand. They shake their head, arm pressing harder against the daughter's throat._

"Eliot…"

" _You're done. You won't be getting out of here alive," they said. The target narrowed his eyes and got to his feet, dropping the gun on the desk. "Please, not my daughter." They clenched their jaw, took in a deep breath and tightened their arm around the girl's throat. Within a matter of two full seconds, they tensed their arm and shifted their shoulder. The soft adolescent vertebra cracked, a moment later the target launched toward them and they rammed their elbow down on the back of his neck. He hit the ground with an anguished, fiery yell and they—_

"Eliot!"

 

 

 

 

It was easier to separate two pilots. They had no experience with separating three minds. It didn't happen until someone pulled the breaker and cut off all of the electricity in that sector.

"No, no, get me out of this right now," Parker screeched, her voice raising in octaves. She didn't care that she was dizzy and disoriented, she needed  _out_  of the restraints and out of this suit.

The room swelled with people. People rushed to disengage them from the system physically. The second she was free, Parker shuffled forward a step or two and fell to the ground. She pulled off her helmet, her face flushed and covered in hot tears.

"Parker, Parker." Hardison dropped down next to her and lifted clunky gloves to her face, but she batted them away.

"Don't…don't touch me," she said, squeezing her eyes shut and wanting to do nothing more than scrub her face with her hands. She pressed her palms against the floor and breathed in deep.

"Eliot," Hardison muttered, glancing behind him, between his and Parker's control systems. Eliot was propped up on the simulator floor, a few scientists crowded around.

"Get, get away from me," he waved his hands at them, reeling from the memory, the lives he took, the schoolyard of children he'd gotten to before he entered the target's house. He killed four kids before he even got in the door. His hands were shaking, his throat dry, a migraine pounding behind his eyes.

"Parker…" Caitlin's voice cut through Parker's turmoil. Parker opened her eyes to see the kind face of the scientist and Ranger. "If you stand up, I'll help you out of the Pons suit."

Parker nodded and stood on shaky legs. Caitlin unhitched and unbuckled each metal part of the suit, from feet to neck, leaving Parker in the thermal suit that was light enough for her to travel in her stealthy way. She left Hardison, she left Eliot, and she bolted through the tunnels.

 

 

 

 

"Have you seen Parker?" She'd been missing for thirty-six hours, and Hardison couldn't stop the concern creeping into his voice.

Caitlin took a breath. "She came to me a few hours after the simulation," she sighed, pushing her fingers through her short blonde hair. "She wouldn't talk to one of our psychologists, so she talked to me."

Hardison lifted his eyebrows. "What? Is she okay? I know Parker, she can find a place to hide for weeks, especially in a place this size."

Caitlin put a hand on his shoulder. "Hardison, she's okay. This is a big shift. Not everyone can handle it."

"Yeah, yeah," Hardison nodded. He rubbed the back of his neck and thanked her before turning around and walking out of the lab. He walked down the tunnel marked with the number 4 and around the bend to the cafeteria. He wasn't hungry, but he spotted Eliot across the way. He slipped between the rows of tables and grabbed Eliot's upper arm. "Eliot, hey."

"Don't touch me, man," he snapped, shrugging a shoulder.

"It's Parker," Hardison said under his breath.

"What about her?"

"Can't find her. This place is huge, she could be anywhere."

Eliot clenched his jaw and sucked in a breath. "She's Parker, she'll be fine."

"Eliot, this is Parker. After what happened—"

"Yeah, what? After I fucked up? Huh? Hardison?" He shoved Hardison's shoulder in the midst of the half-crowded cafeteria. "I don't slip up, Hardison. I don't get rattled. My past does  _not_  get the best of me. I let myself trust too much and look what the fuck happened."

Hardison glanced around the room. Eliot's voice barely got loud, but it got angrier and more aggressive the longer he spoke. Hardison clamped his hands down on Eliot's shoulders for a brief moment before he pressed his palms together in the air between them. "Look, man, I get it. I…I was right there in the Drift, in your memories. It's rough. But this is Parker. You know how she is. If we let her simmer, man, she's gonna shrink back into her shell and we'll have to get her out again. You need to talk to her."

Eliot breathed heavy through his nose until he met Hardison's eyes. "Can we find her?"

 

 

 

 

"Parker?" Hardison's voice echoed down the air duct.

"An air duct? Are you sure? I thought she broke this habit," Eliot grumbled.

"Shhh. It's my best guess."

Eliot crossed his arms and glanced over both shoulders. "Where does this duct lead?"

Hardison lifted up his tablet and pushed around some schematics. "A few places, but there's a small unused office halfway down the total len—"

"That's where she is," Eliot interrupted, turning on his heel and heading down the hallway. Four minutes later, they rounded on a simple door locked shut. Eliot leaned his shoulder against the door and lifted a hand, hesitating before he rapt his knuckles against the door. "Parker?"

Almost a full sixty seconds, a small voice came from inside. "No Parker here," she replied. "Just a closet mouse."

The corners of Hardison's mouth twitched up and he glanced across at Eliot. "Can we come in?" he asked, reaching for the handle. It was locked. "You're the lock picker, not us, girl."

"Haven't we been Drifting for ten days? Shouldn't you be picking up my skills or something by now?" Parker asked.

Neither of them replied, but Eliot knocked against the door with two knuckles a handful of times once more. "Come on, Parker," he said, resting his head against the door.

Twenty seconds later, there was the click of the door lock. Eliot glanced over at Hardison, who stared at him to make sure that he didn't back out of talking to Parker about their first authentic Drift.

Eliot twisted the knob and pushed the door in. The room was almost completely dark, but Parker could be seen sitting in the back corner of the nearly empty room. There was a small light by the door, but that was it.

"Hey, Parker," Hardison said, stepping into the room. The door closed behind them, leaving them cut off from the rest of the facility.

"Hey," she said softly, glancing up and over at them. She was sitting on the floor, legs pulled up to her chest, chin on her knees.

Hardison sat next to her and clapped his hand over her knees once she sat back and rested her head against the wall. "Don't do that again, all right? I thought you were done with the disappearing acts."

Parker shrugged a shoulder, clenching her fingers together in the front of her legs. She tried not to look up at Eliot, but she was pulled into that sensation where instead of not looking at something, you couldn't stop looking.

"Parker," Eliot said finally, standing above her.

"Eliot," she said, pressing her fingers tighter together.

Hardison looked up at Eliot and gave him that look again, that look that told him not to back out. "Eliot has something to talk to you about," he said, giving Eliot the perfect opportunity to start speaking.

"Okay," Parker said, shifting slightly. "Then why doesn't Eliot just talk to me then?" She looked up at him pointedly. "Hardison, I know you were there, but maybe Eliot wants to talk to me alone."

"Wh—what? Oh, right." Hardison got to his feet and clapped Eliot on the shoulder as he walked by. "I'll just…be over here." He left he room, not fully closing the door, but still cutting them off from the hall.

Once they were alone, Parker swallowed and pulled her legs as tightly against her chest as possible. She rested her chin on her knees and pressed her lips together.

"I'm sorry," Eliot said finally.

Parker looked at the carpeted floor, following the design with her eyes. "For what?" she asked, tilting her head to the side and looking up at him out of the corner of her eyes.

He let out a heavy breath and crouched down in front of her so that they were eyelevel. "For losing it," he said, looking at her eyes even if she wasn't looking at him. "I was supposed to be the anchor for the Drift, and I let my past get the best of me. I don't know what happened."

Parker took a breath and slowly lifted her eyes to meet his. The seconds ticked by and hers grew glossy in the low lights. "I never asked you, not after you told me not to," Parker said after a while.

"I know," Eliot said, blinking slowly and reaching out a hand, his fingertips brushing against the loose leg of her pants. "I don't rattle. I've been through weeks of torture and I've never broken before. I don't know what happened. I would have never let you or Hardison see that side of me."

Parker closed her eyes slowly and licked her lips. She let her legs fall into a crisscrossed position and she leaned forward, her hair falling over her shoulders. "You told us that you had secrets you didn't want to bring into the Drift," she said, slowly opening her eyes. "Maybe admitting that made it happen. And then Hardison mentioned Moreau and…"

Eliot mimicked her sitting position, resting his wrists on his knees. "I'll accept any and all responsibility for what happened. It won't happen again."

She nodded, eyes wide and welcoming like a child's.

"If you don't want me with you, I'll step down. I'll learn to control myself and get another co-pilot." He extended the generous offer even as the weight of the decision pressed down on his shoulders.

"What?" Parker shook her head and rested her own wrists on her knees. She lifted her hands and brushed her fingers against the back of his hands. "Eliot, it was a mistake. You've always been here, protecting me, us, the entire team. It's always been you keeping us safe. And, you're human, you're allowed to make mistakes. We all do. Remember? We're the ones who have done things that the others won't. And we have to live with those choices. You told me that."

Eliot nodded slightly. "Yeah. It's what makes us  _us_."

She swallowed and nodded. "Yeah." She licked her lips before she pushed herself to her knees and slipped her arms around Eliot's shoulders, almost knocking him backward with the sudden embrace. She held onto him tightly and his own arm circled around her back with a sturdy, familiar weight. She squeezed her eyes shut. "I'm sorry you had to do something like that," she whispered.

Eliot blinked rapidly at the blank wall, turning his face slightly into her long blonde hair and pressing his fingers a little harder against her ribs. "Yeah, me too."

 

 

 

 

"Ready?" Caitlin asked through their coms. She and Jasper had since tweaked the three-way bridge, both the physical pod and the mental balance. It's been three days since their first test.

"You trust me?" Eliot asked, knowing his coms could only be heard by Parker and Hardison unless they hit the button for audio going from them to the LOCCENT controls.

"Yes," Parker said with no hesitation.

"Hell yeah, man," Hardison said.

"Engaging neural handshake now," Caitlin told them.

There was that tug and they fell into flashes of memories for mere seconds until they fell into blank headspace. Once again, Hardison grinned and they moved their left and right arms in unison to set the neural bridge.

"That's what I'm talking about," Hardison said with a little excited  _woo_ attached. "Really is age of the geek, ain't it baby?"

Parker's musical laugh filtered through not only their coms but their minds as well. Even Eliot couldn't resist a small smile.

"All right, let's just take it slow," he cautioned.

"Initiating simulation now, there'll be no Kaiju until next week, but we've got more of a feel for a Jaeger build to match the three of you, so you'll feel a little more pressure on your minds. Just keep focused," Caitlin walked them through.

The screen before them changed. They were standing over two-hundred feet tall. Parker grinned. "It's like we're standing on the top of a building…"

"Don't even think about jumping, girl," Hardison said. Together, they lifted both left and right arms at the same time and clenched them into fists. They could all feel the extra strain on their minds. It wasn't too much for any of them, but it was  _more_  than the first time. And they weren't even in a Jaeger yet.

"I'm not, I'm not," Parker said lightly. She and Hardison followed Eliot's fight stance. "Eliot, how are you feeling?" She wasn't getting any bad feedback from him, but he also wasn't saying anything either.

"Yeah, I'm good," Eliot said. And he was. Whatever triggered him before, he wasn't falling for that again, he could  _not_  let himself endanger the others. That was the opposite of what he was. Parker said it herself, he was the protector, he was supposed to  _protect_  not  _endanger_.

They just had to keep their minds clear.

"Why don't you three try taking some steps," Caitlin suggested. "Walking is harder than you'd imagine."

Their arms dropped from the bent fighting stance and down to their sides. Left leg lifted. It  _was_  harder than walking normally. Even so, they were still not even in an actual Jaeger. All of the pressure was done with tension and pistons keeping the weight of gravity at the level that moving an almost two thousand ton robot would have.

They took one step and moved onto the right leg.

"Remember the Queen's Gambit job? The one in Dubai with the chess?" Parker asked. No triggering memories there, just the annoying twinge in the back of Eliot's neck when he thought of getting drugged by Sterling. But he could handle his emotions when it came to that prick.

"Yeah, what about it?" Eliot growled.

"This reminds me of walking in those boots," Parker said.

Eliot wasn't there, but he knew what she was talking about. Hardison nodded. "Yeah, an extra hundred pounds on your feet, I feel you."

"Come on guys, let's get in a rhythm," Eliot pulled their focus.

They all set their shoulders and moved their legs, arms naturally swinging lightly at their sides. They walked and clenched their hands into fists, trying to see how much movement they could control at once. There was no silent communication between them except intention and instinct. It felt incredibly natural. They had never needed verbal communication before; this was no different.

Soon, they were sprinting across what Eliot guessed was the White Sands in New Mexico, because the sand was too hard packed underfoot do be the Sahara, but it gave them enough room to actually run in this enormous machine.

It didn't really matter where they were—they were on top of the world.

 

 

 

 

Two weeks later, and the three of them were Drifting like pros. There were no more RABBITs chased, no more mistakes. The simulator control room was specifically made for the three of them, and the schematics for a working Jaeger were already in the process of being on the assembly line. The Mark-1s were almost all given a December launch date. That was still a little over six months away, but the prospect was enough to make the buzz in the facility even more hopeful than it had been since Brawler Yukon took down Karloff.

Caitlin and Sergio weren't an anomaly. The longer you stayed in the Drift with someone, the more alike you became. It was inevitable, since your minds were completely open to each other, that you would pick things up from your fellow pilot and it would influence you.

For Parker, Hardison and Eliot, it was no different.

They were on the simulator an hour a day, five days a week for the first week, until the tweaking was finished. In week two, they were in Kaiju fights for two hours, six days a week. Their minds and bodies became stronger. They could communicate while in the Conn-Pod without having to speak, though they usually said a number of things out loud while connected. That was also common.

They didn't always kill the Kaiju in the simulations. They all had fighting styles that were different, and Hardison usually tried to block Eliot's more abrasive attacks. They didn't quite have the trust down pat, but that was changing.

Exhausted from their longest time in the simulator, the three of them ended up in Parker's room. It wasn't anything fancy—none of the rooms on Kodak Island were—and she had little to bring with her when it came to belongings so it was the most uncluttered.

Hardison was sitting on the floor, his back pressed up against the side of the desk. It was surprisingly comfortable, the floor. He didn't know why exactly, considering he was very much a cushion and comfort guy. It had to be the Drift.

Parker was sprawled out on her back, her head on Hardison's thighs, a sliver of stomach showing between the waistband of her formfitting leggings and the three-quarter-sleeve shirt clinging to her torso.

Eliot was not a sprawler; he was accustomed to keeping his body as small and compact as possible. There were a number of reasons for that, the most important being to make himself as small a target as physically possible. Even when he was home in his own space, he wasn't one for lounging out and taking up space. And yet, here he was, plopped down on the hard floor, arm outstretched and almost touching Parker's shoulder, his head aligned with her hips.

They weren't speaking; there was really no need for words, not in this situation.

"I have to cut my hair," Parker said finally. The silence between them was usually filled by Hardison, but he had gotten control of his babbling as of late.

"What?" Hardison asked, absently moving his fingers through her long golden locks.

"The Pons will fit better if I have shorter hair. Caitlin cut hers when she started Drifting with Sergio and it's better than having to braid it every time," Parker sighed out, turning her head to the side. She could see Eliot's profile, his eyes trained toward the ceiling, and she moved her arm ever so slightly so she could brush her fingers against his bare upper arm.

He almost jumped, but he caught himself. He just turned his head slightly, eyes running over the sliver of exposed skin, over the small swell of her breasts to the blonde hair that was falling all around her like a waterfall. "You shouldn't cut your hair," he said, voice low and gravely.

Parker shook her head, sliding her fingers around his arm and squeezing. "No, it's okay, I have to. Besides, it's like…I'm turning over a new leaf. This hero thing is a big change, I may as well allow myself to change along with it."

"You know, that's a really nice sentiment," Hardison pointed out, though that didn't stop him from running his fingers through the soft curls fallen around his legs.

Eliot propped himself up on his elbow and looked down at Parker.

"You shouldn't cut your hair," Parker added, trailing her hand up Eliot's arm, over his sleeve and to the tips of his hair. "Okay, maybe a trim, but don't cut your hair. Okay?"

He frowned and glanced up at Hardison, who just arched an eyebrow and shook his head twice. Since when did hair become such an important point in Parker's life? "Yeah, all right," Eliot said.

 

 

 

 

The next day, their day off for the week—at least from the Conn-Pod simulation—Eliot was going to cook lunch. There wasn't much he had to work with, but he was going to give it a shot. Hardison and Eliot headed down to one of the kitchens—away from the cafeteria, in the living quarters wing of the complex—and got started. There was five weeks until the Jaeger Academy officially started, a little more than five weeks until the first combat ready Jaeger was actually launched, two months until the first pilots—besides the ones already here—were hired. The facility had a skeleton crew, but that would be changing as soon as the first wave of pilots were found and brought in for training and testing.

Eliot flipped a knife around in his hand. Hardison typed away on a tablet, sitting at the counter on a stool. It was almost like they were back in Boston, working with Nate and Sophie, playing Robin Hood and his Merry Men.

"Do you—hey do you mind if I put on some music?" Hardison asked, glancing from the small screen to the knife wielding Hitter across the counter.

Eliot shrugged. "Whatever, just none of that mainstream crap."

Hardison nodded and put on something indie; not to twangy, not to country, just something to fill the empty space. He swiped upward and, since he had long since matched his tablet with the rest of the system throughout the building, the music filled the literal space, allowing him to still control the volume and use his tablet while the music still played.

A few minutes ticked by, and someone entered the room. Both of them assumed it was Parker, and turned to the door in unison, only to find that it wasn't, in fact Parker, but a woman with a shock of short red hair, standing beside Stacker Pentecost.

"Sir," Eliot said automatically, even though Stacker was out of his uniform and simply wearing what appeared to be a suit minus a tie.

Stacker nodded to the both of them. "Spencer, Hardison," he acknowledged them. "This is my partner, Tamsin Sevier."

She smiled wide and raised a hand. "Hey, guys. You're part of the three-way Drift, aren't you?"

"Yep, that's us," Hardison said as Eliot turned back around to continue working on lunch.

Tamsin moved to sit next to Hardison on one of the other stools and Stacker moved through the kitchen to the fridge. He moved to grab a can of soda. He didn't drink alcohol, and there was little sitting around the PPDC.

"That's so amazing," Tamsin said, leaning against the counter. "Stacks and I are getting our Jaeger in a few months. Have they figured out how to fit three of you into the Pod?"

Hardison shrugged a shoulder, half leaning against the counter. "Still working on it. We've got our own simulator and I'm working with Jasper on how to make it fit within the structure of a Jaeger."

"Yeah? Are you guys gonna have a third arm or something?"

Hardison chuckled and Eliot scoffed, his back to them. "Nah, no third arm," Hardison replied, just as the door squeaked open again.

"I hope this is the right kitchen," Parker sighed out, stepping into view. Once again, Eliot and Hardison turned toward her. Both of them had slight facial changes; Hardison's eyebrows raised and Eliot blinked once and tightened his jaw. Parker walked up and rested her elbow on Hardison's shoulder, eyes on the woman she didn't recognize. "Who are you?"

"Tamsin," she introduced herself, holding out a hand. Parker shrugged and shook it. "You're Parker right? The third part of the trio?"

Parker nodded, leaning against Hardison a little more. "Yeah. Are you…" she glanced over at Stacker, who was leaning against the wall adjacent to the fridge, "you're drift partners."

"Yep," Tamsin nodded.

"You cut your hair," Eliot said finally, his eyes on Parker. She had, in fact, just come from Caitlin's room. The woman offered to cut Parker's hair, and she took advantage. Her hair now, once long enough to brush the middle of her back, was now shorter than Eliot's, the longest strands only brushing her chin.

"I said I was going to," Parker said with a shrug, the curve of her lips signaling that she was totally pleased with the reaction. She wasn't very much of an attention hog; she lived her life in the shadows trying  _not_  to draw attention to herself. She blamed the Drift for her sudden surge of smugness.

Hardison nodded. "It looks—"

"Good," Eliot finished.

"Thanks," Parker said, giving Hardison a peck on the cheek before walking around the counter and sidling up next to Eliot. "Whatcha making?"

"Lunch," he grumbled. He glanced over at Stacker, who just happened to be standing on the same side of him that Parker was standing on. The short strands of blonde cut into his view, surrounding her face in a mess of gold that was just as crazy as she was.  _Twenty pounds of crazy in five pound bag_. "I was only cooking for us, but I could whip something up for you two, if you want."

Stacker and Tamsin exchanged a glance. "No thanks," Tamsin said, hopping off the stool. "Stacks and I have a date with the Pons."

The two of them left.

"I need to tell you guys something," Parker said once the door clicked shut. She stepped away from Eliot and pulled herself up on the corner of the counter, perching there and crossing her legs, letting them dangle over the edge. "I've gotten really,  _really_  used to having you around. I still like being alone—"

"We all do," Eliot pointed out.

"—but the more we Drift together, the less I want to be by myself. I know when we're bridged we're basically alone  _and_  together at the same time, but I still feel more connected and I like that feeling."

"Yeah," Hardison said, nodding and crossing his arms against the countertop. "I feel the same way."

"Okay," Parker said. "I thought it was just me."

"It's not," Eliot said, turning around and handing a plate out to her. On each of the three plates was pan seared turkey, fresh roman tomatoes and lettuce, and a homemade sauce of spices from what he could scrounge up in the cabinets between two pieces of slightly grilled bread.

"Ooh, yum," she said, grinning wide.

Eliot walked around the counter and took Tamsin's seat, setting down the two other plates in front of himself and Hardison. Parker pulled her legs up and crossed them while sitting on the counter, holding the plate in one hand and grabbing half of her sandwich with the other.

"We've got to always stay together, okay?" she asked, just before taking a bite of the sandwich. "Oh my  _god_ , this is the best thing I've ever tasted," she mumbled around a mouthful of food.

Hardison bit into his sandwich as well and made a surprised noise. "Yo, man, this is damn good." He slapped a hand down on Eliot's shoulder. "You should cook more."

"I cook all the time," Eliot growled, shrugging off Hardison's hand.

" _O-_ kay."

"Shhh," Parker interrupted. "Let me have this moment. I want to savor this without bickering."

 

 

 

 

July 24th, 2015. Jaeger Academy opening day.

"We're not the only new ones anymore," Parker said, leaning her arm on Eliot's shoulder and peering down from the balcony at the crowd of people crowded outside of the PPDC.

"We haven't been the new ones in a while," Hardison said. In fact, they'd been here since late March, and they'd already been Drifting for four months, not to mention that their Jaeger schematics were beginning to be ironed out for the mechanics to begin work on.

"Everyone's so hopeful about getting in," Parker pointed out. "They don't know how hard it is to find someone with a connection strong enough."

" _Compatibility_ ," Hardison corrected. "You an Drift just fine with a stranger if you're compatible."

"Yeah, the only reason we got in here is because we had a leg up. We already knew each other," Eliot added.

"Right," Parker said, tilting her head to the side and sipping some juice through a straw from a carton. She kicked her hip out and her boot knocked with Hardison's. "C'mon, we gotta get down to the Kwoon."

 

 

 

 

"I  _really_  don't like this," Parker insisted. She pulled down on the navy jacket and walked between Eliot and Hardison. They fell in step, their paces and steps matching despite the differences in height.

"Oh, c'mon, girl, we should totally be doing this," Hardison said, shrugging a shoulder.

"You know how I get with public speaking," Parker pointed out.

Eliot shook his head. He had his hair pulled back, and they looked quite the team in more than just cotton pants and white t-shirts. "We're not talking. That's what the suits are here for. We're just standing in as successful pilots."

"We don't have a Jaeger yet."

"Parker, Parker, just calm down," Hardison said, waving his hands. "Just stand there and look pretty."

Parker blinked and Eliot arched an eyebrow. "Look pretty? How am I supposed to do that?"

"Just stand there," Eliot said, sliding his hand around her wrist. "You don't have to  _do_  anything else."

Parker pressed her lips together to hide a grin. "Thanks, Eliot."

"I coulda said that," Hardison mumbled, slipping his arm around her back. The main auditorium was just ahead, the thick curtains on the main stage a deep, dark blue. "Deep breaths, deep breaths."

"And now, I'd like to introduce our current Jaeger pilots," the voice of the president of the PPDC came through over the intercoms.

Stacker and Tamsin walked up behind the three of them. "That would be us," Stacker prodded.

The three of them nodded and followed Stacker and Tamsin out onto the stage. From the other side of the stage, Sergio and Caitlin walked out. The crowd in front of them stretched out as far as the eye could see. Parker took in a shaky breath and both Eliot and Hardison reached out to squeeze her arms. The crowd didn't scream or anything, but they murmured as they stood in teams. Two, two and three.

"Now, I see here that there are two groups of two pilots and one group of three," the president said, waving a hand to the side. "Here is Doctor Jasper Schoenfeld to explain how the piloting system works." He stepped aside and Jasper stepped up to the plate.

Parker took in deep even breaths and the boys let go of her arms so that she, and they, could clasp their hands behind their backs.

"Now, normally, it's difficult enough to find two people whose minds are compatible enough to Drift. Now, what Drifting is, to put it in simple terms, is two people sharing a headspace so that they can both take the neural weight of moving a Jaeger. We thought, ever since Dr. Lightcap and Mr. D'Onofrio," Jasper waved toward Caitlin and Sergio, "shared the first successful Drift, that it would be impossible to find three people compatible enough to move a Jaeger successfully. However, these three have successfully created a neural bridge between them. We're still working on the model of their Jaeger, but it should be able to be heavier and more effective against the Kaiju."

"I'd like to see that," Eliot mumbled under his breath.

"Seriously, man, when are we getting this super special, two thousand ton Jaeger?" Hardison whispered back.

Parker jerked out both elbows and nudged their sides. "Shut up."

 

 

 

 

"This place is booming," Hardison said as he and the others walked through the halls. They were no longer working with a skeleton crew; they had barracks filled with candidates.

"I don't like it," Parker sighed, running her hands through her hair.

"Is there anything you  _do_  like?" Eliot asked.

There didn't need to be anything said; they ended up walking to the room without explicitly saying that's where they were headed. It was different than the one Parker had before. With the arrival of a flood of candidates, they moved Parker, Hardison and Eliot to a single room, on their request. It was easier than separating them, and if they needed alone time, they had places they could go. The bed was huge, the largest they could find, and it suited them perfectly.

They got changed without a word into thin cotton pants and t-shirts.

"I don't like having so many people around," Parker explained, running her hands through her hair before lifting her arms over her head.

"I love being around people, why aren't you picking up on that?" Eliot asked, pulling his hair free.

Parker twisted to the right and left, stretching out her back muscles. "I'm stubborn. Like Hardison resisting your combat moves."

"Hey, hey, I got over that," Hardison said from the bathroom, mouth filled with toothpaste.

"Damn straight," Eliot grumbled. "You put the brakes on when we're out there fighting an  _actual_  monster and we die."

"Hey, be nice," Parker said, slinging her knuckles against his chest.

"Hey, don't hit me," he countered, shaking his head and grabbing onto her wrist.

She raised her eyebrows, a mischievous smile digging dimples in her cheeks. "What're you gonna do about it?"

He did that thing where he half started a word, but decided actions spoke louder. He twisted her around and pinned her back against his chest, one arm across her chest, another clamped around her abdomen. "You don't hit people, that's what I do," he growled into her ear.

Parker bit down on her bottom lip and didn't even try wriggling free. She was right where she wanted to be anyway. "I barely touched you," she said, leaning her head back slightly.

"Parker," Eliot breathed out her name, the word warm and tingling across her skin.

She closed her eyes for a moment, savoring the moment before she grinned and spun out of his grip. Her eyes flickered to Hardison, just walking out of the bathroom. "We all need to get some sleep, I'm sure we're gonna have a crowd when we go to the Kwoon tomorrow," Parker said as if nothing had happened, skipping off to pee and brush her teeth and wash her face.

Ten minutes later, the exhaustion of the day, mostly from nerves, but also from their morning Kwoon session, hit them hard. They climb onto the California King, a true testament to just how much the Drift was affecting them. The lingering effects made them even more in tune with each other than they ever had been before the first Kaiju attack.

Hardison always slept on his side, either didn't matter which one, but he always slept on his side with an arm under his head and pillow. He usually laid out on one side of the mattress and Parker took up the middle section. She didn't have a definite sleeping pattern. She moved a lot, and she slept on every side and at every angle and in every position. Only when one of them grabbed her and held her tight to them like a little spoon would she stay still. Eliot could sleep anywhere, in any way, but he'd gotten a case of the Parker syndrome and found he liked to sprawl out more often than he cared to admit. He slept on his stomach or his back, depending on the day, and occasionally he'd grab Parker to keep her still, but he and Hardison had both grown used to her constant movements.

Some nights, however, especially after they spent longer and longer connected in the Drift, they would literally fall into bed, all limbs and a lack of personal space, and they'd sleep in a dog pile, not caring who was lying on who. Those were the nights Parker liked best. She'd wake up in the middle of the night and find Eliot's arm slung around her shoulders and her legs tangled with Hardison's or find both of them having their arms around her and  _their_  legs a tangled mess under the sheet. They never used blankets. With the two of the men running at much higher temperatures than Parker, they were all she needed for warmth, even all the way up here in Alaska.

 

 

 

 

The first recruit combat training they witnessed was with a monster of a Russian named Kaidonovsky. He was just about the largest man Parker had laid eyes on. She, Eliot and Hardison had prime places to watch the first round of compatibility tests.

"Do you think you could take him?" Parker asked, waving toward the man on the mats who had just taken down five opponents who couldn't even  _think_  to match him.

Eliot looked the Russian up and down and shrugged. "Everyone's got a weakness."

Hardison broke out into a grin. "C'mon, man, we all know you say that when you really mean  _no_. It's okay to admit you're not the top dog, Eliot."

Eliot grumbled something offensive under his breath.

"I will fight you." The voice cut through the crowd, which parted. The voice was thick in an accent—Russian. She wasn't small, but the moment she stepped up to the mats, Kaidonovsky immediately dwarfed her. She smirked, receiving a Bo staff from the attendant.

"This'll be interesting," Eliot said, as a similar murmur traveled through the crowd.

And indeed, it was quite a sight. The two matched each other point-to-point, step-to-step. Where she was light and fast, he was solid and sturdy. At the last point, the woman swept him off his feet, literally, and planted her Bo staff a centimeter away from his ear with a crack, her feet on either side of his abdomen. She leaned down, using the staff for support.

"That's enough," Caitlin said from across the mat. She was overseeing the tests today.

The woman broke into a wide grin that was matched by the man. They spoke to each other in their native tongue before the woman stepped away from him and they both straightened their postures and left the mats.

"What did they say?" Parker whispered, tugging on Eliot's shirtsleeve.

Eliot was actually chuckling and shook his head. "She said 'It's just like when we're in bed' and he told her not to talk about their sex life in public," he loosely translated.

Hardison made a face as the next contestants got onto the mats. "Wait so, they're together?"

"Probably married," Parker said before Eliot could. He blinked at her and she shrugged. "What? They look married. Their hair even matches."

At that, Eliot lifted his hand and tugged a piece of her shorn hair.

She batted his hand away and ignored the heat that rose to her face, simply tossing her head back for a moment and tightening her arms across her chest.

 

 

 

 

"Parker!"

She stopped short and turned on her heel in one smooth movement. Hardison jogged up to her and stopped right in front of her. "Hey," he said, flashing a smile with picket white teeth.

"Hey," she replied, smiling minus her own Chiclets.

"Can I uh…can we go grab something to eat?" He jerked a thumb over his shoulder.

Parker tilted her head to the side and reached out, grabbing his hand, large and warm against her own smaller, calloused palm. "Sure," she said, tugging him along toward the kitchens, away from the larger cafeteria, now overwhelmed by the influx of recruits.

"What's the matter?" Parker asks when they're halfway there.

"Hmm? Why'd you say something's the matter?" Hardison asked, voice high and thin, showing his discomfort.

Parker pressed her lips together and stepped to the side, pulling Hardison along with her. Her back bumped up against the wall and she held onto Hardison's forearms. "C'mon, I don't have to be in your head every day to know something's bothering you," she said, pushing herself up on her toes.

"It's nothing," he says, shaking his head.

"No." Parker shook her own head and then tilted it to the side. The residual affects from the Drifting lingered in the back of her mind. "You're…worried…about Eliot? No, not  _about_  Eliot."

Hardison shook his head and slipped his hands around her slim waist. "N…no, no,  _no_ , it's totally cool."

Parker sighed and pulled him a little closer. "You don't have to worry about anything. I still like pretzels. But I also like…sandwiches. I've always thought of the team as my family. Okay?"

"Yeah, yeah okay, all right," Hardison said, nodding and taking a step back to move away.

Parker sucked in a deep breath and tugged him back to her, pushing herself up to the very tips of her toes and yanking him down to meet her lips. She slipped her hands up his arms to his shoulders and kissed him until she had no breath left.

" _O_ -kay," Hardison said, looking down at her with half-hooded eyes.

"Okay," Parker said with a smile, taking his hand and tugging him down the hall toward the kitchen. Which was exactly where Eliot was. Not alone, but Parker's natural instinct to hide all of the time was getting scrubbed and reformed alongside Hardison and Eliot's more aggressive natures.

Letting go of Hardison's hand, Parker slipped between two blondes who couldn't have been more than teenagers, and tapped Eliot on the shoulder. He twisted his torso toward her. Parker slipped her hands on either side of his face and kissed him before he could object. And he didn't. No, he had a moment of surprise but then he slipped one flour covered hand around her waist and the other cupped her cheek.

This was a different kind of breathless. Mostly because she'd never kissed Eliot before, and all of this was a whim that filled her with adrenaline rush much like jumping off a building gave her.

"Wh—what was that?" Eliot asked, eyes searching hers, which flickered from his blue orbs to his lips and then she took a half step back and dropped her arms.

"See? No favorites," Parker said, flashing a small smile at Hardison and ignoring the looks from the other people in the room. She sunk her teeth into her bottom lip and leaned over the pot on the stove. "Ooh, what're you cooking?"

 

 

 

 

Eight months. They've been in Alaska for eight months. The first Jaegers were a week away from launch. There was no three-way Jaeger for them to try out their Drift, so they continued to Drift in the simulator Pons system for hours every day of the week. Their connection grew stronger each time. The physical and neural strain started becoming less of a strain.

It also meant that they spent even more time in each other's heads, and it wasn't just the scientists monitoring them who noticed the changes. The way Parker started actually talking to people first instead of sneaking away. The way Eliot enjoyed less than characteristically enjoyable things, like orange soda and off-handed jokes. The way Hardison started to embrace heights and adopted a less quirky vocabulary.

There were also smaller details.

Parker liked having Eliot teach her how to handle knives. She liked Hardison showing her how to create her own avatars on his tablet so she could move them all around like she was playing God. She  _really_  liked Hardison running trails across her skin with his fingertips when she straddled him on the bed. She  _really_  liked sitting on the counter in the kitchen and locking her legs around Eliot's hips. And what she still liked most of all was falling asleep in the warmth and comfort of her boys.

It was close to the end of the world, everyone had better things to pay attention to than the relationship between the three of them.

Secrets weren't appropriate, especially once they were inside each other's heads. There was no jealousy; the unspoken truths were much easier to live with once they were locked in a Drift.

 

 

 

 

November 29th, 2015. Two days before the launch of the first battle ready Jaeger—Cherno Alpha—Jasper set up a simulated Kaiju attack only, this time, he added a second Jaeger to fight with them. It was Caitlin and Sergio, strapped in across the building and wired into the same simulation.

"All right folks," Jasper said through the coms. The neural handshakes were already established, and the screens shifted in front of them.

"Where the hell are we?" Hardison asked, opening up the com channel to Brawler Yukon. It was dark all around them, and it was difficult to lift the legs of their Jaeger.

"Turn on the floodlights," Eliot said, just as Parker raised her arm and activated the lights. The world around them lit up, showing that they were in the ocean. They were far enough off the coast to not be able to see any land.

"Brawler, you there?" Parker asked, eyes scanning the scene in front of them. Choppy waters, dark, deep, and cold.

"We're here, fellas, don't worry about it. Hundred feet away to your south," Sergio's voice was unfamiliar to their ears through the coms, but it was somewhat nice to have a backup.

"Where's the beast?" Hardison asked, turning around slowly. The extra weight and pressure from the water around them made it more difficult to move, but they were beyond synced— _synced_  wasn't a strong enough word to describe their connection. There were literally no words in the English language to describe the neural handshake.

"Twenty…twenty yards!" Caitlin yelled across the coms.

The water swelled and a Kaiju breached the surface. It roared and flailed limbs, knocking the Leverage team's Jaeger to the side. There was no counteracting the unbalance. Their Jaeger tumbled into the ocean, swarming the screen in darkness.

"Uh, Hardison?" Parker nudged. "Hardison!"

"Wh—what?" Hardison shook his head.

Eliot clenched his jaw. "Dammit, Hardison, don't you dare—!"

Hardison got pulled,  _yanked_ , away from the fight. Everything was dark and black.

_Hardison was pulled under the earth, locked in a pine box with two feet of dirt on top of him. The world closed around him—them—and he couldn't breath. He had nothing but an antique phone and a snappy voice echoing through the speaker._

_Limited air, limited air…_

"Hardison!"

The systems cut them off before they dove too far in. They changed that protocol as soon as Eliot chased the RABBIT the first time. Hardison's heart rate spiked and the new Pons suits detached automatically. He sunk to the ground and Parker and Eliot both stepped out of their stands and over to Hardison.

"Hey, hey, Hardison," Parker said softly, just as Eliot dropped to his knees, grabbed Hardison's shoulders and gruffly repeated his name.

"Alec," Parker whispered, pulling off his helmet. Eliot propped Hardison up against him and pulled off his own helmet. "Alec, c'mon." Her breath fogged up the glass over her face. "Alec!" She shoved him and nearly knocked Eliot off-balance.

Eliot let out a heavy breath and reached across to gently pull Parker's helmet off. Tears glistened in her eyes. She sat forward and gripped his shoulders with her heavy gloves.

"Hardison…you're safe, it's fine, you're not in that box, and you are not under water," Parker sniffed, glancing from Hardison's wide, dazed eyes to Eliot's. She pressed her lips together and fought the quiver in her chin. "We're right here, Alec. Eliot and I are always gonna be right here. We need you."

Hardison sucked in a shuddering breath and blinked rapidly. He sucked in another breath and his limbs flailed, but they both kept him steady.

"Hey, hey," Eliot said, holding Hardison down by his shoulders.

"Pa—Park—Parker," Hardison gasped out.

"Yes, yeah, I'm right here," she said, sitting forward, her short hair falling into her eyes. "Remember? I never shut off the phone."

Hardison blinked widely and nodded, glancing back at Eliot, who bumped his fist against Hardison's shoulder. "In it for the long haul," he grumbled as the room filled with a handful of doctors and scientists.

 

 

 

 

"Do you think we'll be able to name our own Jaeger?" Parker asked one night. None of them were sleeping. Cherno Alpha, Tango Tasmania, Tacit Ronin, Romeo Blue and Horizon Brave were all finished and launched, without pilots. They were still combing through candidates and pairing people up. It was three days until Christmas and the three of them hadn't slept a full night since Hardison's RABBIT.

Parker was lying on her back, playing with the hem of her shirt. Hardison was on his side, as usual, his back toward the middle of the bed. Eliot was also on his back, half off the bed. He rolled half on his stomach, half on his side, facing Parker in the middle of the bed.

"What would you name it?" he asked, voice gravely from a few hours of disuse.

She blinked slowly and licked her lips. "I don't know. Golden Goose?"

" _Giiiiirl_ , you are not naming a giant robot Golden Goose," Hardison said from his side of the bed.

Parker smiled softly at the ceiling and nudged Hardison's leg with her foot. "What would  _you_  name it?"

"This…this can't be a rash decision, Parker," Hardison said, twisting around and looking at her silhouette in the dim lights. "Eliot?"

"Me? Dunno. Rambler," he said randomly, waving a hand. "Colossal Rambler."

"Ooh, I like that," Parker said, glancing ever at him with a wide smile on her face. She reached toward him and grabbed his hand, lacing her fingers through his, her palm against his knuckles, and pressed his hand over her abdomen.

"Actually ain't that bad," Hardison mentioned. He rolled onto his back and crowded Parker toward Eliot.

"Hardison," Parker prodded, looking over at him.

"A'ight, a'ight, give me a second," Hardison said, waving his hands in the air above him.

A full ten seconds passed before Parker kicked him again and half-growled, "Hardison." Her little growl caught Eliot by surprise and he laughed lightly into the otherwise empty room.

"Oh…oh  _mama_ , I got this," Hardison said, shifting against the mattress. "Get this…Phantom Striker."

The deafening silence filled the room.

"W—well?" Hardison said, pushing his hand under his pillow and propping himself up on an elbow.

"That…that is actually really cool, man," Eliot confessed.

"It sounds like Star Wars," Parker pointed out. "But I like it."

Hardison snickered and nodded. "Yeah, get this. Phantom, because y'know, hacker's ain't meant to be found, we're  _ghosts in the machines_. And Parker's stealthy like a mouse, can go in and out of a building like…y'know, a phantom. And Striker is for—"

"For me, yeah, we get it," Eliot grumbled.

Parker's musical laugh filtered through the room. "I like it," she insisted, grabbing Hardison's free hand and pressing their palms together. "We should tell Caitlin and Jasper. I think they'd let us name ours."

"Why? Because we're friends with them? Parker, we're not paying for the thing, we can't name it," Eliot pointed out.

"We  _could_  buy it, y'know," Hardison said. "We're all rolling in dough. Currency is currency, it don't matter if aliens are attacking the planet or not."

"Could we?" Parker asked.

"No, Parker, it's probably got a backer already. I was talking to some guys and overheard them saying they're getting blueprints for the Mark-2s to start assembly now that almost all the Mark-1s are launched," Eliot explained.

Parker raised her eyebrows and looked up at the ceiling. "Wow. Real Jaeger pilots. Who woulda thought a bunch of bad guys could become big time heroes."

They didn't say it, but they all thought it, no Drift needed: they'd been on the road to becoming big time heroes ever since Nate scrounged them up and had them work together.

 

 

 

 

July 14th, 2016.

 _Neural handshake complete_.

The words echoed through the LOCCENT Mission Control. "Ready for Pod drop," Jasper's voice came through their coms. The ground around them shifted as they were dropped within the headpiece of their Jaeger, down a shaft to the body of it. Everything connected with such accuracy it was almost beautiful.

"Kaiju, named Hammerjaw, currently one mile off the coast of Anchorage. Let's get it done, people." Command offered support and gave information at the same time.

The Jaeger was rolled out of the hanger and attached to helicopters to get it out of the half finished American Shatterdome. The Jaeger was newly finished—just two weeks prior—with a fresh paintjob and everything, it was shiny like a fancy new car. It was nearly three thousand tons of machine, guided by the strength of mind and body of three of the greatest criminals to come from American soil.

"Weapons check," Parker said through the coms, for the sake of LOCCENT. She, Hardison and Eliot didn't need to use verbal communications any longer. When they were in the Drift, they may as well have been one single person.

"You ready for this?" Eliot asked, words ringing through their minds.

"Hell yeah, baby, hell  _yeah_ ," Hardison replied with his usual eagerness. They brought their arms together, one hand formed into a fist, colliding with the palm of the other. "This is the real deal."

"The realest," Parker said with a grin, settling back against the equipment keeping her attached to the Jaeger. The copters pulled them up and out into the ocean. They sank down into the water, knees bending even in their human bodies.

"Weapons?" Eliot half yelled with the roar of the Jaeger horn, blaring to get the Kaiju's attention.

"Locked and loaded!" Hardison replied. An animated woman's voice echoed through the Pod, but it was drowned out by the roar of Hammarjaw and Jasper's voice ringing through their helmets:

"You're good to go, Phantom Striker. Give 'em hell!"


End file.
